Once Upon a Time: A Pirate's Life (7x02)

Cute! Very cute! And satisfactory! Also I still don't know why there's a Season Seven of this show, but whatever. Let's take a look.

Cons:

The evil stepmother is silly in how evil she is. Clearly she and Mr. Gold have some sort of deal worked out, and I'm sure we'll learn more about that later... but come on. She wants Henry framed for theft to remove him from her life, she wants to prevent Jacinda from seeing Lucy for no good reason... it's just so campy. I know that we'll get more on her motivations at a later date, but at this point I'm kind of rolling my eyes.

The flashback story explains a lot about why we have some characters trapped in Hyperion Heights, but not others. But one problem it does have is its pacing... I feel like a ton of things happened very quickly, because we had to establish the origin story of Wish!Hook, the reason why Regina, Wish!Hook, and Henry are all together in the same place, why Emma isn't around, etc. etc. all in a very short period of time. We have the older, potbellied Hook being magicked into a young hot version conveniently, we have Wish!Hook doing a 180 on his apparent motivations, we have Emma showing up basically just to hug Henry, and then turning around and leaving again... all of this felt a bit unbalanced and almost like I wanted to see a two-parter. Is this because I want more Hook and Emma? Maybe. But I also think the story genuinely could have been balanced out a bit more.

Pros:

Let's start in flashback news, then move to the Hyperion story. I really like adult Henry. He's the same simple and charming guy he's always been, but he's got a bit more of a kick to him, if that makes sense. He calls for help from his moms and Hook when he gets into trouble with Lady Tremaine, and when Regina and Hook show up, we get a great scene of badass fighting from Hook and Regina, and then great reunions. I like the dynamic that's established between these characters. I know that the Hook we're with now is actually the Wish!Hook, but he's still the same in many key ways. This is kind of a 10th Doctor situation, now that I think about it.

Specifically, Hook and Henry are so cute. I love their bond. We see Hook and Henry embrace, happy to be reunited, and we later see Regina ask Hook to go give Henry a pep talk, because she knows that Hook does well with that kind of thing. So. Cute. As the episode ends, we get Wish!Hook, Regina, and Henry all deciding to stay in this realm in pursuit of their various goals. Henry is still looking for Cinderella and trying to find his own story, Wish!Hook is looking for his missing daughter, and Regina is looking for a place to belong as well. This setup perfectly feeds in to the three characters teaming up in Hyperion Heights.

Also, we've got Emma and the original Hook getting their happy ending. Emma shows up and breaks the news to Henry that she's pregnant, and as the episode ends, Hook and Emma go back through a portal to Storybrooke. We now know that they, along with Snow and David and the rest of our beloved friends, are safe and sound in Storybrooke living out their happy endings at last. It was the perfect way to send off Emma's character. I wasn't necessarily expecting it to go this route, but I'm really happy with it. This is the only way that this show can truly feel like a spinoff and go its own direction. It would be disingenuous to the characters and their goals to have a story with Hook in it where he's doing anything other than trying to get back to Emma. Now, we can truly explore new avenues.

Also EMMA IS PREGNANT THIS IS NOT A DRILL. I'm soooo happy that Emma gets to pop in this one final time and we get to know for sure that she's happy and safe. The scene between Emma and Henry was really touching. Emma wishes Henry would come home, and we still know that he someday intends to (notwithstanding pesky curses getting in the way). But for now, Emma is making a family with Killian, and Henry is off doing his own thing. That's great!

Switching over to the Hyperion story line - there's one key piece that's missing from my understanding, and that's Rumple/Mr. Gold. We know he's in Hyperion Heights, but does that mean that he was in the same realm as Regina, Henry, and Wish!Hook when the curse took place? Or, as is the case with Hook, is this a different version of the same character? What does he want? What are his motivations? This is the first time in years and years that I've cared about Rumple as a potential villain. I love being in the dark again as to his motivations and level of knowledge. I mean, you've got to imagine that he knows exactly who he is and what's going on, right? But what does he want? Is he trapped in Hyperion Heights as much as the rest of them are? For that mater, what the heck is Victoria Belfrey even after? It's a good sign that I'm asking all of these questions. I care enough to want to pursue this story.

Apparently, Mr. Gold requested Rogers (Hook) as his new partner. He did so because he thought Rogers wanted this job more than anything, and would cross any line to get it. But in the end, he says that what he's actually after is somebody with a moral compass. Hmmm... what could this dude be up to?

The sweetest scene of the episode is when Henry helps Jacinda land a catering gig at Lucy's ballet recital, making sure she's able to see her daughter perform. The look of glee on Jacinda's face is worth so much! I loved this whole sequence of scenes.

We end the episode with Rogers, Henry, and Roni all hanging out at the bar. They identify the fact that all of their problems (Henry's guilt about Jacinda and Lucy, Rogers trying to find a missing girl - ostensibly his daughter - and Roni's failing bar) are all tied up in one person: Victoria Belfrey. This scene at the end puts these three characters in an alliance, just like how we left them in the other realm during the flashbacks. This moment, more than anything else about these first two episodes, gives me hope that we could be doing something really cool here.

That's where I'll leave it. I'm not sure everybody will be a convert to this new Once Upon a Time, but I like enough of what's going on here to want to see it through. See you next week!

8.5/10